In contemporary public governance, leaders of public organizations are faced with multiple, and oftentimes conflictual, accountability claims. Drawing upon a survey of CEO’s of agencies in seven countries, we explore whether and how conflictual accountability regimes relate to strategic behaviors by agency-CEO’s and their political principals. The presence of conflictual accountability is experienced as a major challenge and is associated with important behavioral responses by those CEO’s. This article demonstrates empirically how conflictual accountability is related to (a) controlling behaviors by principals, (b) constituency building behaviors by agencies, and (c) a general pattern of intensified contacts and information processing by both parties.

在当代公共治理中，公共组织的领导者面临着多重的，有时是冲突的问责制主张。根据对七个国家/地区代理机构首席执行官的调查，我们探讨了代理问责制首席执行官及其政治负责人是否以及如何将冲突问责制与战略行为相关联。冲突问责制的存在是一个重大挑战，并与那些首席执行官的重要行为反应有关。本文从经验上说明了冲突问责制与（a）委托人控制行为，（b）代理机构的选区建设行为以及（c）双方加强联系和信息处理的一般模式之间的关系。